deficit
A second chance or a boot in the face
By Margaret Atwood, Globe and MailThe first protest was a bucolic occasion. On June 6, after an energetic SaveOurPrisonFarms rally in a Kingston church, during which we were meticulously instructed in the behaviour expected of us during a peaceful protest, we ambled along in the sunshine, accompanied by homemade banners, a hay wagon pulled by a tractor, a contingent of smiling nuns, a donkey, and some kids dressed up as sheep and cows. The community – solidly behind our efforts – cheered us on.
Tough-on-crime laws are tough to swallow
Editorial: Montreal GazetteCanada has a $47-billion deficit, a crime rate that is falling steadily, and a public that is not clamouring for tougher crime laws. Yet in the face of little real need and even less available money, the Conservative government is planning to more than double the country's spending on prisons, to double the number of inmates.
The Conservatives' latest piece of get-tough-on-crime legislation, the Truth in Sentencing Act, will require about $1.8 billion over five years to build 13 more prisons, and then an additional $618 million a year for capital, operations, and maintenance costs, according to Parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page's report last week. The act dispenses with two-for-one credit for time spent in pre-sentence custody.
Instead of using the report as a chance to rethink the wisdom of spending billions of dollars -as much as $9.5 billion by 2015-16 -Public Safety Minister Vic Toews rejected Page's figures, saying he "must be making this up."
Society pays price for crime fixation
The Ottawa CitizenThe Conservatives' fixation on crime despite a decline in crime rates would be beyond comprehension were it not for the fact that tough-on-crime measures do well in opinion polls.
Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page's report shows how much money the government will spend to fight this mythical crime wave. I have no axe to grind about paying taxes, but I do expect some basic openness about how public funds are spent. So why is the government withholding information about the costs of these bills from Page, the media and the public?
New crime bill will cost feds additional $5-billion
By Janice Tibbetts, National PostOTTAWA — A new prison-sentencing law will cost the federal government an extra $5-billion over five years and the provincial governments even more, Canada’s spending watchdog estimated Tuesday in a report that predicts 13 new prisons will be needed to incarcerate 4,000 new offenders.
Kevin Page cautioned that his cost analysis is not an exact science, but rather a “high-level estimation” because he says he was stonewalled by the government in his efforts to secure the needed data.
“I knew incarceration was expensive, but when we actually did the calculation . . . you get big numbers in a hurry,” said Mr. Page, the parliamentary budget officer.
NDP to oppose 'Trojan horse' budget; Layton blasts corporate tax breaks
By: Colin Perkel, The Canadian PressTORONTO - New Democrat Leader Jack Layton taunted his Liberal counterpart Michael Ignatieff Saturday to vote against the Conservative government's "Trojan horse" budget legislation.
Layton argued there was "no way" Prime Minister Stephen Harper would allow his government to fall ahead of next month's G8 and G20 summits, and so would be forced to negotiate with a united opposition.
"The opposition has the opportunity to do some tough bargaining with Mr. Harper right now," Layton told The Canadian Press.
"But for that to happen, Mr. Ignatieff has got to be a real Opposition leader."
Pricey prisons
Editorial: Edmonton JournalFor decades, California has cracked down on crime, punishing offenders with textbook "tough" policies like mandatory minimums, "three strikes laws" and stringent parole. The result has been a steady and dramatic rise in the state's prison population. Today, about 167,000 adults are incarcerated in California. Offenders are now being locked up at a per-capita rate well over double what it was 30 years ago.
All those prisoners have cost the state's taxpayers dearly. In 1980 California spent about $1 billion on corrections. By 2007 that number had climbed to nearly $14 billion. Today about one in every nine dollars the state spends goes to prisons and prisoners.
Provinces fear hefty costs of federal get-tough crime bills
By: Gloria Galloway , Globe and MailA majority of provinces fear that the dozens of crime bills forming the centrepiece of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s legislative agenda will cost their taxpayers billions of dollars – and they want Ottawa’s help in paying for the anticipated influx of prisoners.
Six out of 10 provinces surveyed this week by The Globe and Mail said they are worried that new tough-on-crime laws will pose a major financial burden. The remaining four said they simply do not have enough information to determine the costs they are facing.
Deficit goals missed by $65B: report
By: CBC NewsCanada's federal and provincial governments have missed their deficit targets over the last decade by $65 billion, the C.D. Howe Institute said in a new analysis released Thursday.
The report said Quebec and New Brunswick did the best at staying close to their stated overspending goals, with Alberta and Saskatchewan placing last among provinces.
By the Toronto-based think-tank's calculations, Quebec came within 1.8 per cent of its targets over the decade and New Brunswick had a 2.4 per cent accuracy.
Alberta and Saskatchewan — with their high dependence on revenue from resources — deviated by 6.4 per cent.
Tory law-and-order agenda costs up to $10-billion, budget office says
Heather Scoffield, Globe and Mail
A price tag for part of the Conservatives' law-and-order agenda is about to be made public — and the number is in the billions, far higher than any previous estimates.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer forecasts the cost of implementing just one of the Tories' many tough-on-crime bills is between $7-billion and $10-billion over the next five years.
Kevin Page's complex investigation into the budget implications of the so-called Truth in Sentencing legislation — also known as the two-for-one sentencing law — is expected to be made public early next week.
Victims on short end of federal funding stick, ombudsman charges
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, Parliamentary Bureau Chief Toronto SunOTTAWA — The outgoing ombudsman for victims of crime says the federal government is “shortchanging” victims and should refocus spending that now has a “staggering” weight in favour of criminal offenders.
Steve Sullivan, who ends his three-year term this week, told QMI Agency in an exclusive interview the government has pared funding to victims programs and services while giving corrections a $200-million-plus “enhancement.”
“At a time when the government is making difficult choices about how to spend money, it is frustrating for me and disappointing that victims of crime are on the short end of the stick,” he said.
